SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantum Corp. (NYSE: QTM) today announced that Connecticut-based Groton Utilities is using DXi® disk-based deduplication and Scalar® tape in combination with Veeam backup and replication software to consolidate multi-site backup and disaster recovery (DR), protecting its critical data against malware and loss and reducing overall costs. Groton's implementation demonstrates a commitment to 3-2-1 data protection best practices: three copies of data, using two different media types, with one copy offline and off-site.

Effective Protection for VMs Groton Utilities provides water, power and other services for a wide area of southeastern Connecticut, including the City of Groton. Over the years, the IT team's approach to backup and DR protection has evolved — for example, when the servers were all physical, backups were written to a tape library. As servers became 95 percent virtualized, disk then became part of the strategy. To protect virtual machines (VMs) more effectively, the team chose software from Veeam, and it added Quantum DXi deduplication appliances to handle data growth, in part because the company had such a positive experience with Quantum's tape library and service support team. The DXi appliance not only provides fast backup and restore to keep data readily available but also delivers high deduplication rates that enable Groton to retain backup data for a full 30 days.

"We saw the value of a 3-2-1 approach to data protection," said Tom O'Farrell, Groton Utilities system administrator, "but we hadn't found an effective and cost-efficient way to implement it until we deployed the Quantum-Veeam solution."

Tape Protects Against Ransomware Writing data to tape provides "air gap" protection against data loss and malware, including ransomware. The IT team created a configuration using the two different data centers and disk-to-disk replication. Veeam backs up the VMs to the DXi appliance, and the team's legacy backup application creates tapes.

"We have seen the damage and costs that recent ransomware attacks have created, and we know the best protection is having a kind of 'air gap' — keeping a copy of critical data on tape that is isolated from the vulnerable spinning disk," said O'Farrell.

Reducing Backup Complexity The Groton Utilities team plans to simplify the backup system further by adding another DXi at its second data center to back up both VMs and CIFS shares to the DXi appliances using Veeam, and then replicating backup data between data centers using the DXi appliances. The new system will leverage integration of the DXi systems with the Veeam Data Mover to increase performance and support features such as synthetic full backup and Instant VM Recovery directly on a DXi appliance. Veeam will also back up the physical servers and create tapes.

"The power of the Quantum and Veeam technology is enabling us to simplify," said O'Farrell. The DXi appliances are getting excellent dedupe rates and providing highly effective replication," said O'Farrell. "Veeam can now do backups for both VMs and physical servers, and it can write data both to CIFS shares and to tape libraries. Our experience over the last year is that the Quantum and Veeam elements of the combined solution work very well together."

About Quantum Quantum is a leading expert in scale-out tiered storage, archive and data protection, providing solutions for capturing, sharing and preserving digital assets over the entire data lifecycle. From small businesses to major enterprises, more than 100,000 customers have trusted Quantum to address their most demanding data workflow challenges. Quantum's end-to-end, tiered storage foundation enables customers to maximize the value of their data by making it accessible whenever and wherever needed, retaining it indefinitely and reducing total cost and complexity. See how at www.quantum.com/customerstories.

Quantum, the Quantum logo, DXi and Scalar are registered trademarks of Quantum Corporation and its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

"Safe Harbor" Statement: This press release contains "forward-looking" statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Quantum advises caution in reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, 1) benefits and value to customers from combined Quantum Veeam solutions, including Quantum's DXi appliances, 2) Groton Utilities' future plans for its backup system and 3) customer demand for and Quantum's future revenue from such solutions and appliances. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Quantum on the date hereof. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Quantum's actual results to differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking statement, including unexpected changes in the Company's business. More detailed information about these risk factors, and additional risk factors, are set forth in Quantum's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, those risks and uncertainties listed in the section entitled "Risk Factors," in Quantum's Quarterly Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 1, 2017. Quantum expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.